Surgical screws are widely used in orthopedic surgery to fix broken bones as well as to maintain the broken bones in alignment during the healing process.
A surgical drill guide, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,034 entitled xe2x80x9cIntramedullary Rod Screw Guidexe2x80x9d, describes the use of a drill guide tube for holding and guiding a drill bit for drilling a passage in the bone, and a screw guide tube for holding and guiding a surgical screw within the passage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,537,185 entitled xe2x80x9cCannulated Fixation Screwxe2x80x9d describes an earlier arrangement of a hollow self-tapping surgical screw that is placed over a guide pin mounted in a guide pin hole in a bone to drill and tap a hole at a predetermined location in the bone.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,367 entitled xe2x80x9cDrill Pin Guide and Method for Orthopedic Surgeryxe2x80x9d describes a later application of a guide pin, a drill guide and a surgical screw for the fixation of a bone fracture.
In view of the strict antiseptic requirements of the operating room sterile field, it would be advantageous to use a minimum amount of surgical equipment when inserting one or more surgical screws during an orthopedic bone repair procedure.
One purpose of the instant invention is to describe apparatus and methods for holding and guiding a surgical drill and a surgical screw with the minimum amount of apparatus necessary to drill a bone and to insert a surgical screw therein.
A combined surgical drill and screw guide utilizes a common support cylinder for first guiding the drill guide and then guiding the screw with no auxiliary screw guide insert required. The support cylinder includes a handle attached thereto for allowing manual manipulation of the support cylinder during the insertion of the cylinder end within the bone as well as allowing manual support during the drilling and screwing operations. The interior diameter of the cylinder is sized for clearance of the head portion of the screw.